Let's Pray

God the cosmic bellhop. The most common image of God when we go to prayer. It makes me laugh to imagine God (as the bearded old man from my parents nativity scene who was really a wiseman ... that's my image of God) pushing around my luggage cart saying, "Yes, Rev. Shumaker, I will take care of it." For every prayer I lift up, expecting God to deliver and I may tip God with my words of thanksgiving if I am mindful.

In a recent study I led, it was pointed out that maybe we are missing the point on prayer. We are invited to cry out to God, thank God, praise God, be natural in our prayers, but maybe the point of prayer is not to change God's mind or move God to action. Perhaps the point of prayer is to change our mind and to change our perspective ad move us to action. (Maybe a sermon coming!)

Jacob (from the Genesis story) drastically had his life set on a different course after wrestling with God. Jesus (I think you have heard of him) prayed on the night of his betrayal asking God to "take this cup from him." Yet Jesus would conclude his prayer, "yet not my will, but yours be done." In our prayers, are we willing to talk it through with God in ways that seek understanding and surrender ourselves to God's leading? We pray that in the Lord's prayer: "Thy kingdom come, THY WILL BE DONE ..."

Do we pray to change God, or to change us?

The Wrist and the Hip

Yesterday in worship, we talked about Jacob and his journey/struggles/wrestling with God. In many ways, he represents us. As Jacob concludes his running from God, there is a story in Genesis 32 of his long night wrestling match with God. Though his life seems to be more of a story from Jerry Springer or The Sopranos, his overall struggle tells our story, I believe. And I know it is telling my story as I continue to go back and read as to what Jacob is up to and try to discern where God is guiding me. Amazing how the Bible is full of characters that tell our stories!

If you have not read Jacob's story of sibling rivalry through his running, I invite you to do so in Genesis 25-35. His name means Supplanter or Grabber... and that would be one interesting way to tell of his journey. But that night he wrestled all night with God, he is given a new name: Israel and that name means "one who wrestles with God." In the midst of the wrestling match, the angel (God/man) took a rock and hit Jacob on his hip, and scripture tells us that from then on Jacob walked with a limp.

I am not sure yet how my story continues, I know I keep wrestling with God in a battle I will not win. That whole my will vs. God's will issue is a hard fight. But as for the injury to my wrist, I am now done seeing the doctor. I have about 30% of my strength and 55% of my mobility. Not bad considering what happened when I fell. However, I clearly know that I will not be the same, walking away with a limp.

Perhaps it is a lesson in humility. Perhaps a lesson in community. If you think about the stories of scripture, is your ongoing story in there?

Is This Heaven?

I was watching the 80's movie, Field of Dreams, last night with my boys. We were waiting for the Cub game to come on and came across the movie while flipping stations. It had been so long since seeing it, I forgot about the ending. So the reunion between the main character and his father proved to be a real tear jerker. Yet there is a well quoted line from an important interchange in that movie between the two (Costner and his father). They talk about heaven.

"Is this heaven," his father asks.

"No, it is Iowa," Costner replies.

The conversation continues and the discussion on heaven leads to this conclusion, "Heaven is where all your dreams come true."

Field of Dreams? Perhaps. When I do a funeral message, I usually point to the four "R"s of death: Rest, Reunion, Reward, and Resurrection. They seem to be promises as we pass from this life to the next. In some ways they represent what we dream about, but as we look for hope in this life and look to heaven ... what grander things can there be? Rest from our labors. Reunion with those we love but see no more. Reward for how we loved and lived. Resurrection of our lives, receiving wholeness and healing.

Most of us do not think about heaven much, and I am not sure we should spend our time focusing on a life to come. But we can work for a touch of heaven here. The dreams we hold are not limited to a life to come because our God is not limited to a life to come. Rest in God's arms here in times of sabbath. Reunion in the ways we reconcile and practice forgiveness and connect on deep levels. Reward is given here as life is much more rewarding when we live a way of love as opposed to bitterness and resentment. Resurrection is experienced right here when we open ourselves to the gifts of community.

Is it Iowa? No, this is Illinois ... this can be a taste of heaven.

Complacency and Contentment

Complacency and Contentment. There is a difference. Yesterday in worship as we talked about moving forwards as a church and as individuals, there has to be a level of contentment in life. Wikipedia, drawing upon Buddhist Theology, suggests that, "Contentment is the goal behind all goals because once achieved there is nothing to seek until it is lost." Contentment goes on to suggest that there is dissatisfaction until the idea is achieved and all is compared to the ideal. Translation: the grass is always greener on the other side. I suggested yesterday that we can't move forward until we are content with who we are as people created by God. I suggested that we have everything we need to move forward because we have the love of God.

On the other hand, we have said ourselves that we are comfortable or "content" with where we are in life. That's also true. Perhaps, as was pointed out to me yesterday after church, contentment is a double-edged sword. As contentment can also lead to complacency.

Friends, let us not settle for anything less than ideal. God continues to draw us forwards in ways of life, peace, and grace. The ideal is the kingdom of heaven. We pray, "thy kingdom come, thy will be gone on earth as it is in heaven." Yet, are we striving for that prayer? Again, we have everything we need for the journey.

Back to the Garden

I know that this is the third time we have revisited the garden in the blog, but it seems to be the basis of human history. We come to understand sin, we come to understand the order of life, we come to understand the plight of human history as understood by those who wrote Genesis. It really offers remarkable insight into our story even here in 2008.

After the eating of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, there is a curse put upon Adam and Eve. Eve always gets the bad rap as the pain of childbirth is put upon her in this text, but there is more to the story. I must note here that it is not God's punishment ... but God points out there is a self-imposed curse here that there will be division (enmity) between even the most basic division in humanity.. man and woman (remember, Women and from Venus, Men are from Mars?). The man's self imposed curse would be his toil to the ground; in other words, he will be overcommited to his job. The woman's self impose curse would be her desire for him and his attention. Now please know, some of you may be saying, "amen," that it fits your perception. But this is not a gender specific curse, but a way to point to how we make priorities and cause division.

The divisions go deep. The Bible charts our our historic divisions, our countries today emphasize our divisions, our economy expands our divisions, pride glorifies our divisions. It is not just a story about men and women, but the many ways we see people as "other", "them", and "those".

All the way we divide ourselves, yet the Bible continues to tell a story of reconciliation. One of our journey back to God and the story of peace between people that Christ lived. Can we sum the Bible up as a simple story of forgiveness? I am not so sure, but it is a story of relationship from beginning to end. Love draws us in, peace holds us close, forgiveness offers a new way.

A "Personal" Day ... A Prayerful Day

This past Sunday I took a break from preaching in order to deal with long term issues in my relationship with Erin. Though the issues in our relationship have a long history, the culmination of all of the events this year (most recently the loss of my father), along with my relationship with Erin, made it difficult for me to be able to speak on Sunday. Please know that we will continue to work together through these challenging times.

I feel I do need to apologize for such a last minute change in schedule, and for my abruptness in explaining my absence. As many of you can relate, though, relationship matters can be very difficult to handle, and this needed my time and energy to process. Also, being in the public eye as a pastor has its own life, and I hope that you understand how difficult it is to explain an unexpected "personal day" on a Sunday.

I want to express my gratitude for your expressions of concern since Sunday. The Christian community offers much support and companionship. I hope that you continue to pray for all of your church staff and their families in all that you do. A special note: I want to say thank you to the wonderful staff at Faith UMC and others who stepped up to provide a rich worship experiences at all the services on July 13. I am proud to be a part of such a supportive team.

Revisiting the Garden

At the end of may, in conjunction with the Indiana Jones movie, we discussed about the knowledge of good and evil and what impact that had on our ability to discern good and evil. We questioned whether the quest for knowledge would lead us to death.

I have been reading The Uncensored Bible, which addresses some of the more obscure and risque portions of the Bible. According to Jacob Milgrom, a biblical scholar from Cal-Berkeley, the knowledge of good and evil is a euphemism for intercourse. His description goes into great depth, but in brief, the only two other biblical references to "knowledge of good and evil" are references to such a topic. He also points to the transitions in scripture that suggest that it was then that they became aware of their sexuality.

The traditional notion of original sin and the "knowledge of good and evil" usually leads to a moral sense or the capacity to explore the goodness of humanity. One more final note though from this book as we revisit the garden discussion and the knowledge of good and evil ... indeed sexuality has been used through history in constructive (good) and destructive (ways). Are our eyes opened to a new way of treating and respecting one another?

The Pot and the Kettle, and a Mirror too!

My mother likes the phrase, "that's like the pot calling the kettle 'black'." When my brothers and I used to go at it and verbally insult one another, my mother would step in and try to lighten the mood with her phrase and point out that our insult wasn't really fair because it could be applied to the person saying it as well.

This past Sunday, I made a comment in my sermon about some statements through the years that have bothered me. In our attempt to go withwards as a community and bring our divisions to an end, I commented that phrases like "my service" and "your service" were divisive. Someone reminded me afterwards that I may have used those same phrases myself, you know like the pot calling the kettle "black."

That phrase can be applied to me every week. When I prepare a sermon, I write and deliver the message in front of a mirror. With God's help, I find myself on the journey seeking to be more grace-filled, more communal, more inclusive, more free of sin, closer in my journey to God. When I was asked in my ordination interviews ten years ago what it meant for me to be "set apart" as an ordained clergy, my response was that I believe I am "set within." My ordination makes me no different, only that I have been put into a community to grow and be challenged with as I journey as well.

May we know such journey, may we know such community ... withwards.

Humility (Any help on this coming Sunday's sermon will be appreciated)

Humility is a difficult thing. Since coming out of my shell as a sophomore in high school, I like to be the center of attention. Working behind the scenes? Not for me. Playing second fiddle? Not my thing. Does that mean I do not like authority? I certainly hope not. Nor do I hope that it means I am starved for attention.

Humility is defined as, "A quality by which a person considering his own defects has a humble opinion of himself and willingly submits himself to God and to others for God's sake." St. Bernard (the monk, not the dog) defines it as, "A virtue by which a man knowing himself as he truly is, abases himself."


In thinking about this coming Sunday's sermon and talking about direction (for oneself and our church) I don't think we can move forward in life unless we are content with who we are. The second definition above by St. Bernard is interesting in that the lowering of oneself (abasing oneself) comes when we know who we truly are. It is not a matter of authority, attention, or recognition, rather it is a matter of confidence in who we are and an affirmation of our gifts from God. Do you agree? Is contentment in our very creation key to being able to move forward in our faith journey or our life journey? I am open to your contributions for Sunday.

Philippians 2 talks about Christs' humility in this way: "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!"

God Bless America

In thinking about that phrase again this weekend and hearing it on TV and the radio, I keep thinking to myself, indeed God already has. At least statistically, consider the following:
+ America is 6% of the world’s population but we consume over 40% of the worlds resources.
+ Of the 6 billion people in the world, 1.2 billion live on 23 cents a day, how many of us can do that in America?
+ 40% of the world’s population lack basic sanitation services, how does that compare to our U.S. home?
+ Every 15 seconds, someone in the world dies of hunger, how does that compare to our diet here in the land of amber waves of grain?
+ 1 billion people in the world are without safe drinking water, and yet in America we consume 26 billion liters of bottled water a year.

God Bless America. I hope that our recitation of such a mantra goes beyond that which is material. Perhaps God already has blessed us … with people who have a sense of vision for peace as Jesus teaches. Perhaps to have peace or the ability to make peace makes us rich or blessed beyond measure . The idea of blessing in the Bible is that we wanted to be blessed by God so that we could share that blessing with another. Is that what we’re doing?

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says “Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they shall be called Children of God.” Or to hear it from the Message. “You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That's when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family.”

In a world of disparity - economically and socially – where the things that divide us are stronger than ever. In world torn apart by war, violence in the streets, poverty right outside our door, Christ keeps calling out to all peacemakers.

Weakness

As I was preparing for the bible study I lead on Tuesday nights, I found myself getting angry. The study was called "Jesus Recognizes Our Weaknesses" from the Jesus 101 series. The author was talking about how there are people in our lives (both whom we know and do not know) who like to exploit our weaknesses. I was getting angry because I have been there. There was a time in my life when someone who I considered a close friend was feeding on my weaknesses to build themselves up and guilt me in our friendship. I was not mad at that person, but I was angry at myself because I knew it was happening and allowed it to continue. I thought that I was being a good friend by loving and accepting unconditionally.

The point of the study was that Jesus recognizes our weaknesses and would never exploit them. It is the Sunday School answer to everything (Jesus would never let you down, hurt you, etc). The thought that kept coming to mind was of course Jesus would never take advantage of us because we don't have to share a house, apartment, workplace, neighborhood, with him. Jesus presence is in Spirit, but not in bodily presence. Is that fair to say?

As I have been stewing on this, I keep coming back to how we experience Christ ... through others. Our way of life and how we relate to one another is a testimony to our faith. As Christians, we are the ones who serve as Christ hands, feet, mouth, and heart in this world. The lesson then, perhaps is, more so for us in terms of how we treat one another and how we interact. Do we exploit other's weaknesses? Do you? Can people look at Christs' representatives in this world and say, "Jesus Christ does not exploit my weaknesses"?

My friend was/is a Christian.